Suicide of P Sugathan bares anti-entrepreneur Kerala

Kollam: The suicide of  P. Sugathan, 65,  at Punalur last week has confirmed that the state is not entrepreneur-friendly.  The police arrested an AIYF leader five days after Sugathan, a Gulf returnee, ended his life in disgust over the obstructions raised by politicians against his plans to set  up an automobile  workshop.  The AIYF has   blamed  the CPM-led Vilakudy panchayat governing body for giving permission to the  ‘poor NRK’ by accepting bribe and  betraying  him by permitting construction in the paddyfield which was filled up.

Sugathan  of Alinkeezhil at Aikkarakonam was working as an automobile mechanic in Muscat for 35 years  and returned to his hometown  to start a workshop. He took a  property on lease at Elambal securing permit from the local body and constructed a shed  spending nearly Rs 3 lakh. The local leaders of  the AIYF, youth wing of the CPI,  disrupted the construction  which allegedly forced  Sugathan to commit suicide by hanging in the temporary workshop.

The Kunnikkode police on Wednesday  arrested AIYF Kunnikkode constituency president M.S. Gireesh, who led the protest  by raising flag posts in the land.  Two other accused AIYF workers are absconding. AIYF district president S. Vinod said “the land is included in the databank and the AIYF protested as no action was taken by the authorities to prevent the construction.”

“It was the panchayat president and the panchayat secretary who betrayed Sugathan by giving oral permission to start the work.   The protest by AIYF was not against Sugathan, but against the panchayat authorities who accepted money from him  and  sanctioned the construction. The cases charged against the AIYF workers are baseless,”  Mr Vinod added.

“The AIYF and CPI leaders accepted bribe from my father after they raised flags in the property,”  Mr  S. Sujith Kumar, Sugathan’s son, told DC.  “My father had said that the leaders were demanding huge sums even at the initial stage  and he had agreed to  give  smaller amounts,” he added. The area has several buildings, including an auditorium, hospital and a  building materials shop constructed on levelled land. “Quite recently, another workshop was constructed similar to our case in a levelled land. The politicians had no objection to all those constructions,” Mr. Sujith said. He  also raised  concern over a wound found on the left leg of Sugathan’s body,  and alleged that it was  a murder attempt.